All those who formed Iris

Iris spoke warmly and gratefully of those people who formed her into what she was . In particular:

Agnes Forey, her maternal grand-mother

She had been a Tiller Girls dancer from her early teens until her marriage to Bill. A tutor in the wings taught her the basics but not how to run a household. She kept letters from aristocratic stage door Johnnies but married Bill when aged twenty one.
Her life a bohemian mess, she had nine children and many miscarriages. She brought up Iris while Ethel, her daughter, was working.
She died of a heart attack aged sixty seven.

Iris inherited from her a skill for dance and music, her warmth and generosity, her courage against adversity and an admiration for her cooking.

Bill Forey, her maternal grand-father

Bill was an amiable rogue and a prankster. Taught at the Slade, he was the foremost engraver on gold and silver, had his workshop in Soho and never paid taxes by dint of returning, marked “Deceased”, every letter from the Inland Revenue. During the week he would spend his free time drinking, gambling and socialising with the infamous Mrs Meyrick, the “Queen of the West End” and her cronies.
He would return for party time at the week-end. to the small and over crowded family flat. A big Sunday roast joint was bought. Drinks would flow. The piano was surrounded by the family and numerous friends. Maisie would join in with her accordion. Iris would do her Mae West turn. On Sunday morning, there would be a poker school.
Bill had not shown much interest in his own children or their education but took a shine to Iris as an intelligent, spunky and amusing child.
When it was raining Sunday morning Alf, Iris‘s father would not take her to Hampstead Heath, their usual haunt, but would sit at the game of poker. Iris, aged seven would ask to join. Alf left her his place and his stake. Bill told her that if she joined, she might lose her money and there would be no mercy. Whatever happened she must not cry. She lost a bit but did not flinch,

Iris learnt from Bill, her grand-father, independence and self-reliance and a sense of fun.

Stan Forey, her uncle

Stan was the youngest of his nine siblings, was still at school and more of a caring big brother to Iris than an uncle. He taught her to tell the time, the movements of the planets. He took her to her first visit to the dentist and such were the dire consequences of his hearing her squeal, even just a little, that she learnt stoïcism. Later on, a young sailor during the war, he brought her bananas and taught her to boogie-woogie.

Iris was taught by him fierce independence and a sense of fun

Maisie and Frank, her aunt and uncle

They were both very musical. Frank, totally untaught could not only pick up any popular tune on the piano but would play it convincingly “in the manner of” any piano music star of the day. The fact that he could wiggle his ears at the same time was an added bonus.
Maisie was a wizard on the accordion.

Iris learnt from them a love of music as something fun

Alf Cooper, her father

Alf had a tough childhood: His father having been murdered in a brawl, he was placed in care with his two younger brothers by his mother. She kept only George her crippled son and Ginny her daughter. He was birched once for scrumping apples for his three years old little brother who was hungry. He was birched the second time for leaving the care home to find his mother in the East End.
His dream as a young man was to become a boxing champion, but this was not to be. An encounter with a steamroller on a road-building site left him with a weak shoulder. He was easy going, gregarious, kind and mindful of the feeling of others. His friends were East End toughies but he was himself always scrupulously honest.
He fought in the second world war, never talked about it , found that his wife had bought a house in Walton on Thames, hated its petit-bourgeois respectability and yearned silently for the stimulation of the East End..
Iris, his only daughter, was the apple of his eyes as were later on his two grand-sons, Guy and Simon. He demanded little from life except their happiness. Sadly he died from stomach cancer on his sixty fifth birthday.

He gave Iris the security of unconditional love and a role model in kindness and feeling for others

Miss Dors Her form mistress at Guilford County (then a public school)

Miss Dors was a South African and a history scholar. She had written some standard school books on her subject. But it was as a form mistress that she exerted a great formative influence on Iris. She coached her in having poise and self confidence without brashness. She thought that Iris should go to University and become a teacher or perhaps a doctor.. When Iris explained that she wanted to work abroad and that the quickest route would be through the Palantype College, then a fashionable and very expensive secretarial cum finishing school, Miss Dors went to bat for her and browbeat Surrey Council in giving her a full grant.

Miss Dors gave Iris confidence in herself as a person and as a brain.